Heads hacked off, a bite from a lion, tiger or bear, massive muscles on massive men – all clues that an ancient cemetery uncovered in northern England is the final resting place of gladiators, scientists have announced after seven years of investigations.
From CNN.
After several centuries, all that would be left there is skeletons (maybe not even that – many may have turned to dust by now). So how can you tell that the muscles were massive when they all decomposed centuries ago?
And how can you tell that the bite was from a lion or tiger or bear? Unless the bite hit a bone, the tissue that had the bite marks has long since decomposed.
Sounds like a lot of sensationalism here.
One of the archaeologists was on NPR last night, in a feature I don’t have time to find and link to at the moment. Basically, you CAN learn about muscle mass by studying the bones because the points where the muscles attach become more robust. And there are carnivore bite marks on them.
Isn’t it great that the site was preserved all these years? We can learn so much…
An archaeologist named “Hunter-Mann”? What the hell?
Because there’s an entire field of study in archaeology/anthropology dedicated to finding that out? For instance, they can tell when a skeleton was a longbowman based on the deformities and stresses placed on their skeleton.
You don’t think that a carnivore’s bite in a gladiatorial arena is going to be to the bone?
More boring web-hyperskepticism. The cemetery remains match exactly those found at a known gladiator cemetery in Turkey. York was the Roman capital of northern England and had a massive Roman presence.